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During the race, pit road can be a busy place.  Under cautions, it’s not uncommon for 30 or more cars to hit pit road for service.  When that happens, teams are at the mercy of those around them in regard to how they can get in and out of their pit stall.  But during green flag pit stops, crew chiefs actually work together to give their drivers the best chance of getting on and off pit road quickly.  By coordinating with their neighbors on when they come in for service, crew chiefs can ensure their drivers have a clean shot in and out of their pit stall.

What you often hear about, is crew chiefs coordinating with each other during superspeedway races like we just had at Talladega.  In those cases, they are usually trying to work out drafting deals and figure out when they can come to pit road with their partners.  But this type of collaboration isn’t just limited to Daytona and Talladega.  It actually happens almost every week.

Once you are aware of what is going on, these interactions between rival crew chiefs can be interesting to witness.  In the days of advanced technology with computers and digital radios, guys are usually reduced to yelling, hand signals, and sending runners from pit box to pit box.

Since the teams aren’t wired together, and with noise being an obstacle, the first challenge is getting your neighbor’s attention.  From there, the goal is to figure out when the cars to your left and right are coming to pit road so you can come the lap before or after.  By working together to stagger pit stops, everybody gets the best possible chance to gain or maintain track position.

It’s the little intricacies like this that make racing truly interesting.  When I talk to new race fans, and those attending races for the first time, they often say that they didn’t realize how complex and involved it all was.  The quote is usually something like “I just thought it was guys going in circles.”  Those of us in the sport and the educated race fan know different.  These interactions between rival crew chiefs are a small, but vital aspect to giving a driver the best possible chance to win.

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Heading to Talladega this weekend, we are getting ready to bear witness to a couple of newer phenomenon in NASCAR competition.  The first of course is the new style restrictor-plate racing that dominated the day at Daytona in February.  The tandem drafting will most likely be the name of the game again on both Saturday and Sunday at ‘Dega.  And the second I’m referring to is the ability that drivers now have to talk to each other during the race.  Racing Radios and Racing Electronics can now program systems in which the drivers can jump from their own radio frequency to that of another driver and actually communicate during the race.  We saw it happen at Daytona because it allowed the drivers to better navigate the tandem drafting, but I’m not sure if it’s something that should be happening.

Some teams have had setups in the past where teammates could switch over their radios and talk to each other, but it didn’t happen often, and when it did it was usually under caution or at superspeedways.  Now though, some drivers will have as many as 15-20 different drivers they will be able to talk directly with during the race.

I understand why some find it necessary, as with the tandem drafting and the “switch” that must take place periodically it can make things easier.  But I question if discussing strategy and talking with competing drivers is really in tune with the spirit of competition.  It can also create problems for spotters, crew chiefs, and crews.

Just as an example, when driver A jumps over to driver B’s channel, he can no longer hear radio traffic from his own channel.  Any information that needs to be conveyed to the driver from the crew and crew chief must now be relayed through the spotters.  It adds a level of complication to making adjustment and pit strategy calls that probably isn’t necessary.  I’m wondering how long it will be before a driver needs to pit, or is calling out adjustments he needs to his crew, but isn’t on the right radio channel.  Chaos will most certainly ensue.

For the spotters, when drivers are hooked together, we’ve seen that usually the lead car’s spotter will end up spotting both cars.  This effectively eliminates the immediate need for half the spotters stand.  The half that aren’t working however, must still continue spotting their race car, as their driver could return to his own radio channel at any moment.  It’s a very odd situation to listen to.

Besides the communication issues, I also wonder if spending time and focus switching radio channels while at speed is the right thing for drivers to be doing.  Racing at Daytona and Talladega is hard enough without having to worry about what radio channel you are on.  This gives me a driving while talking/texting vision.

You won’t often read a blog post by us that doesn’t have a clear cut opinion, but I have to say that I’m really on the fence with this one.  I certainly understand the reasons why the drivers are doing it, but I also have clear reservations.

Thoughts?

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It’s not often I see press releases that truly catch my attention. I mean something beyond the standard pre-race and post-race (which are both useful enough). The last couple of weeks I’ve seen two that had me talking – one for the good, the other for the bad.

Something different? Go Red Bull!

This one was a first – and something I’ve been advocating for for a long time. Why not get creative with your communication efforts? Everybody puts out the same formulaic pre and post-race releases with a ridiculous amount of spin. We get it, you’re trying to turn a 30th place finish into a positive thing.

Lest we be disappointed by yet another post-race we’re probably not going to read, someone finally did something about it. Thank you Red Bull!

You may have seen this – it made the rounds on twitter – after Pocono the folks over at Red Bull, instead of doing a recap of the race that we all saw, injected some humor into their release with some fun facts.

The first bit on their release read:

Pocono Raceway is like the Death Star when it comes to rain. There’s some sort of triangular tractor beam that seems to suck in ominous clouds.

Haha. What? The Death Star? It continues like that, but I had to finish reading. They even managed to sneak in some information about their teams and drivers. All in all, not bad. Check out their turn by turn Watkins Glen post-race – equally entertaining.

The beauty of this is, they’re not running great, but they’ve got people buzzing about something positive. A win-win for the team.

The clock starts now to see how fast someone steals this from them – or tries to outdo them.

Bad luck? Or the funding fell out?

Generally start-and-park teams don’t put out pre and post race releases. It’s obvious why. But I found an exception.

Michelle Theriault has been running a start-and-park for Andy Hillenburg’s Fast Track Racing. After Theriault’s first race at ORP the sponsor’s marketing company (yes, a start-and-park with a sponsor) put out a release claiming it was bad luck that forced Theriault out of the race.

From the drop of the green flag, Theriault fought a tight condition which inhibited her climb through the field. The crew planned on making adjustments on the No. 48 ProGold Lubricants Chevrolet, but bad luck struck on lap 52. A kink in a line going to the radiator caused the motor to overheat, which relegated the rookie driver to a 32nd-place finish.

A kink in the line? Bad luck? Sounds to me, as Michael McDowell put it on his twitter page a few weeks ago, the funding fell out on the front stretch.

What’s worse than being a start-and-park? Trying to pretend you’re not one. This was just plain insulting to anyone who read it – and it all but guaranteed I wouldn’t be looking at another of their releases.

Luckily, though they’ve been putting out pre-races, they quit doing the post-race.

Sometimes its just best not to say anything at all.

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